Fails the Bechdel test
A Christmas Story
1983. Directed by Bob Clark, written by Jean Shepherd and Leigh Brown and Bob Clark.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
1 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
5 women characters. 3 of them speak. -
No
2. Who talk to each other
Our parser found no scene where two women talk to each other. -
No
3. About something besides a man
Not reached: the film fails an earlier rule.
Second opinion
Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 1 out of 3.
The film
Christmas is approaching and 9-year-old Ralphie Parker wants only one thing: a Red Ryder Range 200 Shot BB gun. When he mentions it at the dinner table, his mother's immediate reaction is that he'll shoot his eye out. He then decides on a perfect theme for his teacher, but her reaction is like his mother's. He fantasizes about what it would be like to be Red Ryder and catch the bad guys. When the big day arrives, he gets lots of presents including a lovely one from his aunt that his mother just adores. But what about the BB gun?
- Released
- 18 Nov 1983
- Genres
- Comedy, Family
- Rated
- PG
- IMDb
- 7.9 / 10
- Metascore
- 77 / 100
- Awards
- 4 wins & 11 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Narrator 132 lines, man
- Father 84 lines, man
- Mother 68 lines, woman
- Ralphie 29 lines, man
- Dill 18 lines, man
- Miss Shields 15 lines, woman
- Randy 14 lines, man
- Ralph 13 lines, man
- Schwartz 13 lines, man
- Flick 11 lines, man
Full cast, 38 people
- Melinda Dillon as Mother
- Darren McGavin as The Old Man
- Peter Billingsley as Ralphie
- Jean Shepherd as Ralphie as an Adult (voice)
- Ian Petrella as Randy
- Scott Schwartz as Flick
- R.D. Robb as Schwartz
- Tedde Moore as Miss Shields
- Yano Anaya as Grover Dill
- Zack Ward as Scut Farkus
- Jeff Gillen as Santa Claus
- Leslie Carlson as Christmas Tree Man
- Jim Hunter as Freight Man
- Patty Johnson as Head Elf
- Drew Hocevar as Male Elf
- David Edward as Kid with Goggles
- Dwayne McLean as Black Bart
- Helen E. Kaider as Wicked Witch
- John Wong as Chinese Father
- Johan Sebastian Wong as Waiter #1
- Fred Lee as Waiter #2
- Dan Ma as Waiter #3
- Rocco Bellusci as Street Kid
- Tommy Wallace as Boy in School
- Court Benson as Pierre Andre (uncredited)
- Leigh Brown as Red Hatted Curly Haired Woman in Line for Santa (uncredited)
- Bob Clark as Swede (uncredited)
- Giada Dobrzenska as Little Girl at Parade (uncredited)
- Dave Duff as Firefighter (uncredited)
- Jordan-Patrick Marcantonio as Boy visiting Santa (uncredited)
- Kristephan Warren-Stevens as Crowd person (uncredited)
- Don Geyer as The Scarecrow (uncredited)
- Kathryn Hayzer as Churchgoer (uncredited)
- John Kennedy as Fire Chief at Schoolyard (uncredited)
- Bill Kravitz as Billy (uncredited)
- Julie Matthews as Caroler (uncredited)
- Christine Powrie as Screaming Girl on Slide After Ralphie (uncredited)
- Quinn Smith as Flagpole Bully Sudent (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 5% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 58
Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.
Show the numbers
| Scenes | Women's lines | Men's lines |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 2 | 0 | 1 |
| 3 to 4 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 to 6 | 0 | 2 |
| 7 to 8 | 0 | 4 |
| 9 to 10 | 9 | 37 |
| 11 to 12 | 0 | 15 |
| 13 to 14 | 10 | 29 |
| 15 to 16 | 4 | 4 |
| 17 to 18 | 3 | 14 |
| 19 to 20 | 8 | 42 |
| 21 to 22 | 1 | 13 |
| 23 to 24 | 0 | 1 |
| 25 to 26 | 0 | 15 |
| 27 to 28 | 4 | 6 |
| 29 to 30 | 3 | 17 |
| 31 to 32 | 10 | 9 |
| 33 to 34 | 7 | 4 |
| 35 to 36 | 0 | 0 |
| 37 to 38 | 0 | 3 |
| 39 to 40 | 3 | 22 |
| 41 to 42 | 1 | 9 |
| 43 to 44 | 2 | 8 |
| 45 to 46 | 4 | 12 |
| 47 to 48 | 5 | 19 |
| 49 to 50 | 7 | 21 |
| 51 to 52 | 0 | 1 |
| 53 to 54 | 4 | 16 |
| 55 to 56 | 3 | 8 |
| 57 to 58 | 0 | 3 |
The evidence
- Straight from the script
- Counted from the script and the credits
Tap an exhibit to open it.
Exhibit A: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 21 are women's.
88 lines from women, 335 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
5 women and 16 men in the cast. 3 women and 10 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 16 of 443.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 21 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 15% of the words (1,268), men 85% (7,244). Women have 21% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.
Exhibit D: the test the other way
Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.
Conversations between two named characters
Two women
0
Two men
14
Exhibit E: behind the camera
4 of the 16 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 25% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Bob Clark (man)
- Written by
- Bob Clark (man), Leigh Brown (woman), Jean Shepherd (man)
- From the novel by
- Jean Shepherd (man)
- Produced by
- Bob Clark (man), René Dupont (man)
- Shot by
- Reginald H. Morris (man)
- Edited by
- Stan Cole (man)
- Music by
- Carl Zittrer (man), Paul Zaza (man)
- Production design by
- Reuben Freed (man)
- Costumes by
- Mary E. McLeod (woman)
- Cast by
- Mike Fenton (man), Marci Liroff (woman), Jane Feinberg (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Sound
0 women, 6 men, 6 not listed
-
Production
5 women, 4 men
-
Art
0 women, 3 men, 2 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 2 men, 3 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
2 women, 1 men, 1 not listed
-
Editing
0 women, 2 men, 2 not listed
-
Writing
1 women, 3 men
-
Other crew
0 women, 2 men, 1 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 40 on average. Men: 24 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Tedde Moore 36, Melinda Dillon 44
Men
Ian Petrella 8, R.D. Robb 11, Yano Anaya 11, Peter Billingsley 12, Zack Ward 13, Scott Schwartz 15, Darren McGavin 61, Jean Shepherd 62
Exhibit G: the money
It made 6.3 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $3.3 million
- Box office
- $20.7 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 58 scenes and 443 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
